The staunch conservatives who flocked to Atlanta this weekend for the RedState Gathering seemed just as eager to vilify Republican John Boehner as Democrat Barack Obama.
The crowded event, which attracted nine presidential candidates and dozens of other politicians, displayed the continued frictions between the activist base and Republican Party leaders. The massive field of presidential candidates is responding, for the most part, by gravitating further to the right.
That may explain why some of the loudest cheers of the weekend were reserved for Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who excoriated his party for striking compromises on spending plans and high-profile appointees.
“What exactly has this new Republican majority accomplished? Nothing? It’s actually worse than that,” he said. “In this case, our team is playing for the other side.”
Newly in control of Congress, Republicans are under mounting pressure to fulfill their promises of balancing the budget and transforming government into a smaller and more efficient operation.
But converting rhetoric into action has proved daunting, with Democrats still holding veto and filibuster power, and critics pointing to falling budget deficits as proof that the dire warnings from Republican fiscal hawks are overblown.
Meanwhile, compromises on the continued funding of the Department of Homeland Security after Obama's actions on immigration, a new trade deal and the appointment of Loretta Lynch as attorney general have infuriated conservatives.
At the RedState Gathering, the simmering discontent from the grass roots was constantly on display.
Some participants roundly booed the sight of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican who expanded Medicaid in his state under Obamacare, when he appeared on screen during Thursday’s debate. They held training sessions on how to use social media and appeal to college students to build a broader, and more fervent, conservative base. And many held firm to a take-no-prisoners approach.
“We are capitulating too much. Don’t tell me you’re going to support something and then turn around and make a deal,” said Michael Pemberton, a RedState attendee from Kentucky. “If we support compromise, we’ll start to disappear. And we’ll eventually be taken down.”
How to hold their own leaders accountable remains a pesky dilemma. Some have called for a new purge of incumbents, while others urge a more gradual change from within.
Former South Carolina U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, who resigned from office in 2013 to head the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation, said “singing to the choir” at conventions such as RedState is crucial to ratcheting up the pressure on Republican leaders.
“I know a lot of us are disillusioned, disappointed and frustrated with what’s going on in Washington. I know a lot of us are upset about Republicans who haven’t stood up to Obama on federal spending, on Obamacare,” he said. “Our job is to start the parade. And we know the candidates will jump into the parade.”
Brent Bozell, the head of the conservative Media Research Center, urged a new round of soul-searching in the wake of political gridlock over attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. The women's health group has come under renewed scrutiny after the release of videos suggesting it illegally sold organs from aborted fetuses. It has denied any wrongdoing.
“I don’t know what the Republican Party stands for, but let’s ask ourselves what we stand for,” he said. “If this horror story from Planned Parenthood doesn’t get us to stop Planned Parenthood, then as a society I think we’re finished.”
Many conservatives at RedState see what they view as a winnable battle on the horizon: The push to pass "religious liberty" measures in a range of new states. The measures' supporters say they would protect religious expression from government intrusion, but critics in Georgia and elsewhere have stymied the proposals by claiming they would let businesses discriminate against gays and minorities by citing their faith-based beliefs.
Several of the White House contenders who visited the convention emphasized the legislative push an election-year imperative, as did Casey Mattox of the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“We’re going to win this fight because we have to win this fight,” said Mattox, whose right-leaning group has vowed to fight in court to preserve the laws against challenges from critics who view them as discriminatory. “And if we don’t stand up for religious liberty, what is the point of all this? It’s a battle we have to win, and that makes me think it’s a battle we’re going to win.”
There was perhaps no presidential candidate among the nine who captured the audience like Cruz, who enjoyed ovation after ovation with his no-compromise rhetoric such as his pledge to reject “mealy-mouthed statements about acceptance and surrender.”
Near the end of his speech, he was asked what he meant when he accused the nation's political hierarchy of "leading from behind."
“Sure,” he said to laughter. “Republican congressional leadership does it every day.”
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